


Working Man

by caitlinnlouwho



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: AU, Dick and Jason are actually brothers, Dick is a perfect individual, Jason is too cool for you, M/M, Tim is a BAMF, Tim is a Wayne, Tim is stressed, Wayne Enterprises AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-19
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 03:45:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1089224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caitlinnlouwho/pseuds/caitlinnlouwho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tim Drake was used to a routine. He was used to driving through Gotham every morning, to making his way to the office where he was wordlessly handed his coffee, to settling at his rather large desk where he verbally bitchslapped other companies in the name of business. He was *not* used to this new assistant of his.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Unexpected Assistant

**Author's Note:**

> Wayne Enterprises AU-- Tim is the boss and the batboys aren't all brothers. Enjoy!

Tim storms through the corridor, talking angrily on his phone. A major deal that he’s been working for months is in danger of falling apart because of some idiot’s incompetence. If it falls through, WE is in financial jeopardy, mainly because Tim had relied on it to save the company.

And Timothy Drake absolutely refuses to let that happen, to let the crumbling of the Wayne empire, everything Bruce worked for, fall under his reign.

So he does his best, even if that includes screaming at several different people and drinking copious amounts of espresso. No doubt he’s getting an ulcer or two.

Of course, preoccupied as he is, he doesn’t immediately notice the dark-haired man sitting in the corner of his office. He manages to sit for a good few minutes, poring over stacks of contracts while he bickers at the other line.

But when he does notice the man, it isn’t a pretty reaction.

“Shit!” He drops his phone on the desk in shock, scrambling to grab it before the man on the other line notices anything amiss.

“Look, Conner, I’ll get back to you in a minute. You know I prefer working with you more than anyone else at your company, and I think we’re starting to get on the same page. But I have to deal with an, er-, in-house problem.”

He intentionally drops his phone this time, ice-blue eyes boring into the stranger’s gaze.

“Now, who the hell are you?”

The man in the corner springs to his feet and smooths out the wrinkles in his tailored suit, extending a friendly hand to Tim.

“Jason. Jason Todd.”

Tim eyes Jason carefully, wonders why he’s here, especially today, he doesn’t need this goddamnit-

“I’m told that I’m supposed to be your new assistant.” Jason grins devilishly, white-streaked hair flopping in his eyes. He glances around Tim’s spotless office, and notices the prints hanging on the wall.

“You like birds, boss?”

Tim stutters, tries to wrap his head around the fact that he has a new assistant, one that he didn’t hire. He runs his hand through his hair, sticks his hands in his pockets. Something about Jason is disarming, and Tim doesn’t like it one bit, doesn’t like relinquishing control, especially in his own space.

“Uh, kind of- Listen, I don’t know if you have the wrong building or something, but I didn’t hire a new assistant.” He tries to be nice, even though this day is going to shit, because Jason seems like a charming guy.

“Oh, I know, boss.” He smiles again, and Tim swallows hard. “Your lovely receptionist out there hired me. And I have to say, I’m not too unhappy that I decided to take the job.”

Tim’s fists ball up, he grits his teeth, and sticks his head out his door.

“DICK!” Tim screams, even though he could have used the intercom, but Jason needs to know his boundaries if he’s staying and-- He’s staying? 

Not two seconds pass before Dick Grayson leans on the doorframe, winking at Jason. “Oh Mr. Wayne, I thought you could use the help. You look awfully tired, no offense, and Starbucks can only do so much.”

And, surprisingly, Tim doesn’t take offense.

“I guess you’re right, Dick,” he concedes, feeling the bags under his eyes. “You should have cleared it with me first, but I, ah, appreciate the gesture.”

Dick pats him on the head and swivels on his heel, calling out “I’m just looking out for you, little bird!”

“Dick, don’t call me that-“ he trails off, because Dick is already around the corner.

“So.” Tim whips his head back to Jason, who’s gotten entirely too comfortable, and damns the completely unprofessional look on Jason's face to hell. 

“What’s there for me to do?”

“You can go get me some espresso. Five shots in one cup, please, no sugar.” And Tim picks up his phone again, motions for Jason to get to it.

“Conner, it’s Tim.” 

~~~~~~~

Jason saunters down the corridor, passing Dick’s desk on the way out, sunglasses already perched on his head.

“Hey, Goldie,” he calls. The man behind the desk smiles and waves Jason over.

“How is it in there with the baby dictator?” Dick asks jokingly, casually slinging his feet up on his desk.

“Well, he’s not so bad,” Jason begins, but Dick cuts him off.

“Just wait, Jaybird. You haven’t incurred the wrath of Timothy Drake yet. He’s like my little brother, but don’t piss him off. Fair warning, little wing.”

Jason cocks his eyebrow, but waves goodbye wordlessly and sets off again.

'This job is going to get interesting,' he thinks. 'Might be a good chance to see how this little machine ticks.'


	2. A Crack in the Marble

Jason returns with the coffee a while later, grinning at the phone number scrawled on his cup. He approaches Tim’s office, pressing his ear to the wall to see if his new boss is having a full out fight with anyone on the phone. Naturally, Jason wouldn’t want to miss one bit of it.

Nope. Just the loaded murmurs that Jason should have expected to hear.

Of course, Tim has been hashing out this deal for hours, he thinks. But then he hears frantic whispering, and scoots closer to the door.

“Well, what am I supposed to do? Dick pulled a fast one on me!” Tim sounds worried, unhinged even.

There’s incoherent mumbling from the other side, and Jason scoffs regretfully at the idea of Tim having any private conversation via speakerphone.

“Kon, stop it. You know full well that I don’t have time for it.” Jason hears him lean back in his chair, sees his shadow adjust the legs that are balanced on top of the desk.

“I don’t care, I’m not going to pursue it right now. Besides, there’s something about him that’s unnerving. To me at least. But then again, have I ever been normal?” He laughs bitterly, raising his voice to an audible level again.

Jason shakes his head, grinning again, nearly dropping the coffee perched in his hands at the thought of witnessing Tim without his impenetrable walls.

“All right, Conner. Fax me those papers and we will be well on our way to rectifying this mistake. I’ll be in touch.” Tim’s back in business mode, and Jason thinks it’s safe to go in.

Tim’s slouched on the desk, head in his hands. Jason raps on the doorframe, and Tim lets out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding.

“Here’s your heavenly ambrosia, boss.” Jason barely has time to set down the cup before Tim drains it in one go, with mutters of “took you long enough” muffled by the cup.

“God, could you drink that any faster?” Tim glares at Jason, fingers tapping the polished wood of his desk.

“There should be a fax for me waiting in the copy room. Go get it. It’s from Kent Industries.”

Jason swaggers down the corridor, mulling over Tim’s words as he goes. Something about him was unnerving? Jason scoffs, clumping into the copy room. Of *course* Tim had a problem with him. Control freaks never take well to his charms. 

When he returns with the fax, Tim’s gone. Jason shrugs, eyes flicking around the room.

“Guess it’s lunchtime.”

He pokes his head around the corner, catching Dick’s attention in the creepiest way he can think of.

“Goldie! You’re coming to lunch with me!” He drags Dick out of the chair, shoving his coat in the older man’s arms and herding him towards the elevator.

“We’ve got some things to talk about, don’t we?”  
~~~  
Meanwhile, Tim crouches on the roof of Wayne Enterprises, sucking down a cigarette like it’s his last. He rocks back and forth, although he can’t tell whether it’s to stay warm or to calm himself down.

Those faxes from Conner may have spelled good news, but he’s just now gotten an email from Lucius that has managed to completely derail his plans.

The energy project that he’s poured millions of WE’s dollars into is headed for failure, and there’s nothing he can do to help, save a miracle.

He can’t expect Conner to keep the deal afloat when he finds out. He sure as hell wouldn’t. Panicked, he clutches at himself, seconds away from breaking down completely.

Calm down, Tim, he tells himself. 'You’re a Wayne. Waynes do not crumble. Drakes do not crumble. You do not crumble.'

So Conner can’t find out about this. He won’t. You make damn sure he won’t. He swallows, fixes his tie, and stands up on shaking legs.

Tim finishes his cigarette, looks over the edge of the skyscraper. If WE falls, it will hurt him just as badly as if he’d jumped off the building himself.

Tim knows that if Wayne Enterprises falls, it will kill him.


	3. Crumbling

“Jason, we’ve talked about this. I’m his business consultant, not his receptionist.” Dick crosses his arms pointedly, glaring daggers at Jason.

Jason smirks back, leaning on the elevator wall. “I sure love getting a rise out of you, Goldie.”

Dick rolls his eyes, and Jason can feel himself easing back into that carefree rapport they shared as children.

“You always have, Jay. So, what things do we need to talk about?” Dick asks as they step out of the elevator.

Jason shrugs noncommittally, places his sunglasses on his nose. “Just my new boss. You sure he ain’t actually 12?”

“He’s 19, Jay,” Dick sighs.

“And?”

“And he’s nothing short of a genius. But he’s extremely skilled at putting up walls and fake fronts.” Dick pushes out the door, strutting away as he throws a pointed glance Jason’s way. “I’m one of the only people he’s got left, and I still don’t know everything about him.”

“So you and short-stack are like brothers?” Jason inquires. He didn’t expect ruthless Tim Drake to even be friends with easygoing Dick Grayson, much less brothers.

“We are, at least on my end,” Dick says as they find a respectable-looking diner down the street. “He may not know it or admit it, but he’s a complete workaholic. He won’t watch himself at all, and he would never ask for help. I hate to think what he would do if he didn’t have anyone to keep an eye on him.”

“Isn’t that why I’m here?” Jason grins.

“Uh, sort of… I just don’t have a lot of free time anymore, and with Barbara and the baby, things are getting crazy. I really don’t want to see him hurt. After Bruce died—“ Dick trails off for a while, eyes growing hard.

“Let me guess. The baby bird took it pretty hard?”

“We all did. Bruce was like a father to me, but then again, he never signed any adoption papers for me. That’s why Tim is so driven, I think.”

“He doesn’t want to crap all over the Wayne family name.” Jason smirks, snickering at Dick’s affronted expression.

“God, Jay. Could you be more classless?” Dick rolls his eyes, taking his annoyance out on his food.

“Hey, watch it big bro. I’ve come a long way from our days at St. Swithin’s.”

“We both have. I still haven’t forgiven you for ditching me, by the way,” Dick says jokingly.

“Things happened,” Jason replies, noncommittally shrugging his shoulders. “At least I’m talking to you now! You should be grateful, ‘cause I’m a fucking ray of sunshine.”

Dick nearly spits out his drink.

“Now then, since you two are so close, tell me more about baby Drake, will you?”

~~~

When Jason returns from his break, he’s not surprised to find Tim glued to his desk, fingers flying away on his keyboard.

“Need anything, bo—“ Jason’s cut off by Tim flinging a list at him and returning to his keyboard with a terrifying ferocity.

“Whoa, watch it, Speed Racer,” Jason starts jokingly, but Tim’s angry, bloodshot eyes indicate that he is in no mood to laugh. “Okay boss. I’ll take care of this for ya.”

He swaggers out the door (not again, Tim thinks, who the hell does he think he is?), and Tim bites his lip, typing even faster.

He’s trying to invent a way to make the energy reactor work properly, and so far every model he’s rendered has either combusted, melted, or refused to work. So he shuts down the program for a while, and pulls up his emails. Nothing new (yet), but he feels that it would be in the best interests of the company to email Conner.

"Currently working on finalizing this deal. Last minute snags are a bitch, aren’t they? Expect my final offer in three days.  
-T"

He pulls up the program again, tries a new design for the reactor. Pushes his hair out of his eyes, tries to focus his vision on the monitor in front of him.

“Shit.” Of course this one failed as well. 'This isn’t a reflection on you, Tim. You’re just tired. You’ve been pushing yourself too hard.'

Tim growls in annoyance, ripping open a packet of caffeine pills and swallowing them dry.

He was in for a very long night.

Jason decides that getting to the office early wouldn’t be a bad idea. Besides, he could always disarm the baby dictator with espresso. Dick had told him that Tim was slightly addicted to caffeine, at which Jason let out an extremely derisive snort.

'Slight addiction my ass.'

But he goes early, makes sure that Tim’s drink doesn’t have sugar in it (like he's actually going to give him that shit anyway, it’ll just make everything worse) and even manages to charm one of the other baristas.

He doesn’t think he’s surprised when he finds Tim in his office. He doubts that Tim even went home last night.

The younger man is bleary-eyed, mussed hair sticking up, and he stares at Jason for a moment, as if he doesn’t know who Jason is. Then he shakes his head, fixating on the cup in Jason’s hand.

“Mine?”

Jason nods, watching Tim as he drains the cup fast enough to beat his previous record. He only stops when the phone rings, jolting him into a business frame of mind. Tim answers the phone, replies with few words. He nods, and hangs up silently. Jason watches as Tim’s face flickers with fear and disappointment. He wonders what on earth the phone call could have been about, to make Tim react this way. And then, his boss is staring at him, eyes cold and calculating.

“Get me a press conference. Now.”


	4. The Descent

The shitty thing about having a boss like Tim, Jason thinks, is that he never tells people anything. 'He’s so secretive about everything.'

Jason’s crouched against the window, staring down at the steps of Wayne Enterprises, where his boss is currently giving the press conference he so cryptically requested two days ago. Tim had not been happy when Jason mentioned that the conference would have to be days later; he’d sulked and thrown himself even further into his work. 'Well, he won’t be so secretive for long.' 

Jason straightens up, a wicked grin contorting his lips. He decides that now might be the best time to go snooping around, because Tim is nowhere near his office. So he creeps down the hallway, breathing a sigh of relief that Dick’s office is empty as well. He doesn’t need Dick’s well-intentioned opinions right now.

It’s not hard to access Tim’s computer; in fact, Jason’s a bit perplexed that it’s not more heavily protected. But he’s grateful all the same, and he smiles when he lands on Tim’s email, already opened and logged in.

“You didn’t have to go to all this trouble of logging in for me, baby bird,” he snickers. The snickering continues as he sees the spam emails Tim’s gotten; the shopping newsletters (Bath and Body Works? Really?), and the massive amounts of chain mail lingering in his inbox.

He stops laughing when he sees the emails from Lucius and Conner. He stops laughing when he sees the chain of lies and desperate charisma that Tim’s employed, trying to keep the company, his company, his life, from crumbling at his feet.

And he begins to understand why Tim keeps these things a secret.

“Why the fuck are you in my office?” Tim is standing in the doorway, looking pale and drawn, the circles under his eyes colored black for all the stress he’s been under.  
Jason freezes, dread and guilt tangling together in his stomach. “I-uh, I was just looking for—“

But it’s far too late for him to talk his way out of this. Tim strides over to the desk, and yanks the monitor to face him.

“You were reading my email?” Jason nods helplessly, shrinking under the icy glare that the younger man is sending straight through him. 

“I lock my computer for a reason, Jason. Why did you think it was necessary to read my emails?” There’s anger in Tim’s voice, and it’s carefully controlled.

“I wanted to know more about my boss,” Jason says, trying to inject as much of his usual charm as he can. And Tim explodes.

“Then fucking ask me to dinner or something! I’m not a robot, Jason, I can actually do other things besides my job! Jesus Christ!” He slams the door shut, trapping Jason in the room with him.

“All my life, people have treated me like shit because I’m too smart, or I’m too fragile, or I work too much, and I’m fucking SICK of it.” He’s shaking now, stalking circles around the desk, eyes shining a bit too much.

'I wondered why he was so standoffish. But he has every reason to be. Shit, I would be too. It’s astonishing that he hasn’t died yet, with all that stress he puts on himself,' Jason thinks blankly.

“They just think they can stamp all over me, all over everything I’ve worked for, everything I’ve created, instead of just asking if I’m okay or if I need help! They won’t fucking do it! And now people don’t even need to shit all over my legacy because I’ve done it to myself!”

Jason can only watch as the calculating, shrewd man he’d known turns into a frightened boy.

'Shit, how much has he had to deal with? And he’s 19. No wonder people think he can’t handle himself.'

But at that moment, Jason knows that he can. He knows that Tim can handle himself, in the only way he knows how to. Tim’s a pressure cooker. The only way he knows how to function is to bottle everything away, and focus on the task at hand. This is the real Tim. Not some businessman hidden in a slew of emails. He’s a man who can’t stop until he succeeds. And there’s nothing he can do but turn himself inside out to make that happen.

“Now you know everything. You know what a shitshow this has turned into. You know what I had to do to cover everything up, to make this work. And it was for nothing. I don’t even care that I’m ruined. I care that I’ve ruined Dick, I’ve ruined Lucius, I’ve ruined Conner, even. But most of all,” he sobs, hands clenching on his suit jacket, “I care that I’ve ruined Bruce.”

Jason’s at a loss; he’s never dealt well with sentimentality or emotion, nor has he cared to deal with it. But this time, he wants to try. So he sits next to Tim on the floor, silently absorbing the ranting and tears that the younger man is expending, the meltdown that eventually turns to silence and stony expressions.

“Look, I didn’t mean to snoop around.” Jason pauses. “Okay, that’s a lie. I did, but I never intended for it to turn into some huge thing where I found out about the skeletons in WE’s closet. I wanted to find out more about you as a person. All I’d seen was this calculating asshole, and I figured that nobody can stand to have a stick up their ass 24/7.”

Tim sniffs, eyes fixated on the floor.

“So I talked to Dick, too.” A loud groan escapes from Tim’s lips as he throws his head into his hands, 'goddamn it how can he break down my walls like this, I can’t let myself fall, I’m just going to get hurt-'

“And the Tim Drake I met through him is completely different. This Tim is so much more than how you present yourself here. He’s strong, and badass, and giving.” Jason laughs at Tim’s look. “Yeah Dick told me about how you donated almost everything you had to the poor one year, because you couldn’t stand to watch them freeze.” It reminds Jason of his days on the streets, and he wishes he’d had someone like Tim to watch out for him when he was little. “He’s a goddamn genius, and he can’t stand to watch people in trouble.

“He’s a man that I would want to—” and he breaks off as he feels Tim’s mouth on his, feels Tim’s tears staining his cheek. It’s quick, and Tim shoves his head back into his knees, grabbing his hair, muttering “oh shit” over and over. Jason clears his throat, trying to stifle the red creeping into his cheeks.

“He’s a man that I would want to get to know better.” Tim looks up at Jason, not wanting to believe that he hadn’t just fucked something else up too.

"So, little bird. Dinner?"

It was true; he hadn’t.


	5. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the end! Thank you to all who stuck with me!

It’s a miracle, Tim thinks, that he was able to cobble together a new reactor in time to show his backers. It’s heavily redesigned, for sure, but it will work even better than the original plans (he hopes). Thanks to his smooth talking at the press conference, he was also able to rectify the financial hole WE had fallen into; even better, they were making huge profits.

It’s a miracle, he thinks, that Conner and Dick were right. About everything.

He’s decided to take some time off. It’s been eight weeks since his breakdown, and he’s ready to leave WE for a while. Tim could never leave the company for good; he’s worked too hard to pass the torch to someone else just yet. But he trusts Dick, and leaves the press problems to his charming demeanor.

Of course, Jason has to go on leave with him. It would be an absolute shame if extremely urgent WE business came up and he didn’t have his assistant with him to, well, assist. 

Jason sneaks up behind Tim, poking his sides and earning a soft squeak in return. Tim whips his head around, his teeth biting into his smiling lips.

“I thought you were on vacation, baby bird.” He smiles wider, and shows Jason the tablet he’s been tinkering with.

“Call it a personal project.” It’s a photography album of the two of them together. Jason’s astonished to see that Tim looks radically different from the photos that Dick showed him before he started at WE. He looks happy.

“We’re a fucking beautiful couple.” Tim starts laughing, and Jason pulls him into his arms. 

“Thank you, Jason,” Tim murmurs into his shoulder.

“For what?”

“Everything.”


End file.
